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A year ago I called for refill on a cheap diabetic med for my husband. They said he was no an longer active patient so they couldn't refill it. I said we never left and he was seen within the last year. They said Dr so and so left our practice. I said yes the resident left when his residency was done - but we didn't leave. They said he is no longer an active patient.

I got an appointment with a different practice ASAP and we finally got the script refilled. He missed a week of meds.

I'm a nurse. I know how to make the system work for us. I still couldn't prevent him from missing a week of meds.

I guess we could have sat in an urgent care and begged for a script - but there was no guarantee that would have worked either.

Then I see patients all the time with notes in their charts about medication noncompliance. I wonder who exactly was noncompliant. It's a blame the patient culture ...

Don't get me started on "non-compliant!" I am a grown-ass adult. I make my own decisions about my body. You're not the boss of me, stupid American medical-industrial complex! Ahem.

The system may be more broken than it was before, in some ways. I don't know; I don't participate. I hope I never have to. Several members of my family have just keeled over and died. I hope I'm one of them.

We need to go to something much simpler, but that would likely cut too many greedy participants out of the system. It's like a feeding frenzy now.

I would prefer fee-for-service and a catastrophic coverage of some kind. No bleeping insurance companies and no paperwork designed to confuse a few more dollars out of you. I'm pretty sure it won't happen in my lifetime.

I had the experience of having to stand in line at the pharmacy every month to get thyroid medication (gotta wring that co--pay outta you). My solution? I stopped taking it. That was twenty years ago. So far, so good. Relatives who are on it seem no better off, so I think that was a sound decision.

Health care should not be run on the capitalistic free market system. It is too critical to everyone. It should not be based only on employment or total poverty. It should not require an emergency room visit for basic care.

If you want capitalism, then give the public transparency. Tell the public what the costs are and keep them consistent. For one CT scan at a local hospital, I found out there was a brochure price, then a price for self pay, then different prices for different insurance companies, then write offs for "poor' patients. It was like trying to buy a cruise or a used car. And I only found out this much due to billing problems and studying the information sent to me.
I feel such sorrow for the elderly, the poor, the mentally challenged, the illiterate for having to deal with such a mess. Then add to it dealing with gate keepers that are given their own agenda and required to work from scripts.

Personally, I just get really mad. Last error I got from a local medical supplier was turned into Facebook negative reviews, email contacts, numerous telephone contacts and a threatened personal visit to the hospital administrator. Not good for my mental health and should never have been necessary. Mom got numerous erroneous bills and had a panic attack over the weekend. Took one phone call and a computer check and determined between the billing and receipt of the bad notices, it had been resolved. Even the customer service person said he wished they did not send these bills out so fast. Numerous errors.

There are many options and competition in food and housing. Energy is a special case. We have transparency in prices. You don't like the price of apples at X store, go to Y store. Or change to oranges or fruit juice. If you dont like the gas prices at station X, try station Y. However, they generally track the cost of oil. There are choices of vehicle, sharing/car pooling, using public transport if available, etc. Prices are generally very transparent. Even taxis are regulated as far as price is concerned.

Housing comes in all forms. Rent is pretty transparent. If it is too much, get a roommate or become a roommate. Buy or rent. Yes, we are struggling with homelessness and those issues in cities. Some homelessness due to choice and some due to disaster. It is being worked on but the prices are transparent.

Our energy (electric, gas, propane, etc.)is a controlled system with much governmental regulation. In Europe, there is much more competition and consumers can often change from one provider to another. Prices here are very transparent.

What choice do you have when cancer, ALS, stroke, heart attack presents itself? What competition is available in the marketplace? Do you have the time or health to search out what other choices are available? Do you have the money to pay or deposit up front? Do you do what people did in the past and just not seek out what you cannot afford? In other words, die of treatable conditions? What choices have consumers been given in the drug marketplace in the last few years when very necessary drugs are marked up for profit hundreds of percent? Dont take the drug, try and find an alternative (often none or different medically), suck it up and pay whatever they charge? Natural gas is controlled more than drugs.

I have an issue with many people who say "I dont want to ..........." because I dont like............" I dont want to live with a roommate because I like my own place. I dont want to share a ride because I like my privacy, I dont want to eat what I can afford because I want to eat out or eat all organic......................... I dont want to pay for health insurance because I know I wont need it and I have other things to spend my money on.

But then they will argue that government programs should provide all available options to them for free because "I dont want..........".